Tobias's Decision
by theimpossiblegirl42
Summary: We all know the story of Tris's initiation, but what about Tobias? This is about Tobias becoming Four, and his struggles as a Dauntless initiate. Might end up going past his initiation and into his life as a member before Tris comes along.


Tobias' POV

I walk out of the room where I just took my aptitude test. According to it, I should stay in Abnegation. For some people their aptitude test results cause confusion and make their choice difficult. That's why we're told that your results don't have to impact your decision. You're expected to stay in the faction you're born into, and if you transfer you're seen as a traitor. This is truer in some factions than others, but the Abnegation have an unspoken expectation, stronger than in most of the other factions, that you stay amoung them.

I don't care if they think of me as a traitor, though, and my aptitude test won't impact my decision. To me, the faction that I'll choose has always been obvious. There's no one left that I care about to keep me here, and every reason to leave.

I get on the bus once we're all dismissed to go home, and all I can think about is how free I'll feel once I choose Dauntless and leave behind the pain of my past.

I have to go down for the Choosing Ceremony in an hour so I look around the place that I will leave behind forever for one last time. Every nook and cranny of my house has some sort of terrible memory to accompany it. I glance at the corner of the kitchen where Marcus, I've long stopped calling him father, first cracked his belt against my face. Shivers of fear run down my spine. I see the knife that he used to cut my mother and the corner of the family room where I cried after she died in child birth. Her memory leads me up to my room, and I pass by the dark closet where I was imprisoned for hours.

I walk to my dresser and pull a heavy, blue object out from underneath the pile of my gray Abnegation clothes. I lie down on my bed and toss the glass sculpture between my hands. My mother gave this to me before she died. Since the Abnegation consider art and decorations to be self-indulgent, I shouldn't have it. It was our small act of rebellion.

I know that I won't be able to take it with me. I'll lose my only connection with her, but I know it's what she would have wanted me to do. I have the chance to be free of Marcus's cruelty forever and I have to take it.

I leave the sculpture on my bed, so that when I'm gone and Marcus walks in he'll see it, the act of insurgency that my mother and I share.

Marcus walks beside me as we head to the Choosing Ceremony, neither of us saying a word. I think that he expects me to stay in Abnegation, but I've never really cared about his expectations and I'm not going to start now.

We get to the room and I separate from Marcus without a word for what is hopefully the last time. I take my place in the line of sixteen year olds. I've watched the Choosing Ceremony every year that I can remember and have always known its importance, but I don't think I ever quite understood it until this exact moment.

What I choose right now will irrevocably impact the rest of my life in the most significant ways possible. It will change the type of environment I'm in, the situations that I'm put in, the people I meet, and ultimately the person that I will become.

The Erudite are conducting the ceremony this year so I hear Jeanine Matthews drone on about the values and beliefs of each faction, as well as the significance of this occasion. I just tune her and everything else out. I don't really think about anything in particular, I'm just in a kind of daze.

"Tobias Eaton."

I'm broken out of my trance-like state at the sound of my name and walk toward Jeanine to reveive the knife. I keep my hands loose at my sides, as they are surprisingly steady.

I walk toward the bowls, not hesitating in the slightest. This decision will free me from Marcus's cruelty and the pain of my past. I get the opportunity to start over again and become a newer, braver, Tobias.

I cut my hand, not wincing at the sharp apin spreading from the wound, and thrust my palm over the hot coals.

I look towards the Abnegation and feel every one of their eyes on me. They see me as a traitor to their faction, but I couldn't care less. I lock eyes with Marcus, and after a moment of shock the only emotion registering in his eyes is a hot, intense fury. I keep his gaze in the only act of defiance I have ever shown him.

Relaizing this I feela sudden paigne of guilt run through me, causing me more pain than the knife. I never stood up to him, not even when he was beating my mother. I draw my eyes away from him in shame, but keep my head held high. I'm determined to elave everything behind me.

The last few teenagers add their blood to various bowls, and I turn around to follow the Dauntless out the door and to the new future I'm making for myself.

**AN:** Thanks you so much for reading! I'm going to try to update within the next few days, but I also have to update my other divergent fanfc, when the past comes back, which you should check out if you havn't already. Oh, and please review and let me know what you think. I'm excited to write the rest of Four's initation!


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